Belloq Log

[archeologue]

Who: Belloq and OPEN
What: Belloq around town. Three locations, three starters.
When: Today-ish
Where: Museum, Resort bar, Pugsy's
Notes & Warnings: None at the moment. Will edit if something comes up.

Comments

[archeologue]

Belloq grinned at Niko's last comment. "That is something I can definitely agree with. And another point in Italy's favor."

His face sobered then. "So what's the particular bullshit that was more than you were willing to put up with. The way you spoke, it didn't sound abstract."

[vengeance_driven]

"It isn't really a story meant for a good time. Come on, lets not talk about wars anymore. We're here, on an alien planet with all kinds of alien assholes and new problems! You might as well have fun with them." He shifted away from the unpleasant topic, elbowing Belloq enough to jostle him.

[archeologue]

Belloq accepted the jostle and the rebuff of his question. He switched topics easily, with an agreeable nod.

"Have you see the Asari women? The rumors I've heard...very interesting."

[vengeance_driven]

"I have. Is pretty much true. They don't have to do very much. One of them sang to me, and I came out feeling pretty good. Not good good. But ah... satisfied, I guess. I usually don't get that kind of sleep unless I got someone next to me, you know?"

Though there was a bit of awkwardness in that, more often than not lately, it was a short and irritable sniper.

[archeologue]

"Someone should make gramophone recordings. They could make a fortune."

He finished his drink with a final gulp and gestured to the dog-faced bartender for another.

"Having someone to share your bed with is a fine thing. It's a thing that I don't have as often as I'd like. Beds are few and far between in the places my work takes me, good company even more so."

[vengeance_driven]

"I slept on the ground a lot during the war." Niko pondered, thinking back again to those days despite wanting to veer his head away. But the thoughts weren't so bad. "I had these friends, and Serbian ground is cold. Me and the other soldiers would sleep sort of close, in our sleeping bags. Not uh, the homosexual way. A brotherly way. We always felt pretty safe like that."

Then his thick brows rose. "But there's always a lady that will do better than this for the right price."

[archeologue]

"Brothers-in-arms. Yes, we did that in the trenches, too, during the winter. But these days I have much better supplies than I did at Ypres, so the only time I found it necessary to cozy up to my guide and porters was on an expedition to Norway in 1929. An early winter storm came in as I was excavating a Viking burial mound and we all shared one tent for five days and didn't leave it, not even to defecate. By the time the storm was over I was nearly dead from the stench."

He pondered for a moment, then decided that he might as well ask. Niko seemed like someone who would know. "Are there any humans in the Petal and Stamen? I've been, shall we say, interested in looking at the flowers, but I'm not certain I'm entirely ready for aliens."

[vengeance_driven]

"I would have went outside. It doesn't matter. I would have found a way. I know Russians who have lived harder."

Niko shook off the idea of the stink with a jostle. "It sounds worse than the ships. And ah... yes. Yes there are humans. The aliens aren't so bad. Not all that different in some ways. Some are talented, some are beautiful, some feel a little different, but the end result is the end result."

[archeologue]

"Yes, but those are Russians. They're crazy. And possibly freeze-proof. We French, not so much. Just look at Napoleon's invasion attempt."

He glanced at one of the alien patrons in the bar, imaging briefly what they might be like. He has seen humans of all kinds of cultures and colors, but the aliens are more strange than anything he's encountered before. Still...

"Then perhaps one of these days I'll be daring and give it a try. But probably not right away."

He takes a swig from his glass.

"I can hardly imagine what my Aryan employers would make of aliens beings. I think it would upset their sense of order in the universe."

[vengeance_driven]

"Hitler ends up discovering the same thing. Poor choices are made, there." Even if it cost a hell of a lot of lives.

He laughed a little at that. "There will be a lot of things that upset their order of the universe. America. The communists. You know, their country is split right in half because of this, and they are not allowed their own military. They are limited to under 400,000 men. But they're doing okay, now, that they spend money on themselves and making living conditions better. Less reason to kill each other off, I guess." Niko shrugged lightly and let his eyes roll over towards the Krogan claiming his victory. He'd never thought about it before.

[archeologue]

Belloq snorted in dry amusement. "Going to Russia is always a poor choice. The only good thing there is the vodka."

But his expression grows more solemn as Niko describes Germany's eventual fate.

"And what of France? How does my country fare in the war?"

[vengeance_driven]

"Are you from before or after France surrendered?" he asked with an inquisitive tilt of his head, now better facing Belloq.

[archeologue]

"Ah. Well I suppose that answers that question."

Strangely, he smiled at the news. "It's just as well for them. Better to surrender than have a repeat of the last war.

"Where...or when I come from, the year is 1936. The war hasn't started yet, but I know that the Germans plan to build an empire and I can guess that the rest of the world will not be eager to let them have one."

[vengeance_driven]

"Their camps treated them a little better. Not a lot of French Jews. But they took about 2 million of you. With us? The Croats sold us out. Half a million of us murdered and 50,000 of those in Jasenovac.

"Trust me, you'll want out of that business when you go back. You get caught helping them and they hang you. I'm not even shitting you, man. They actually hand the people in on it if they have a good excuse." He claps a hand on his shoulder, hoping that the archeologist would see some sense. After all, it wasn't worth giving your life to someone who dicked over your people. Which may be the most principled thought he had in a while.

[archeologue]

"Two million? That's almost as much as the entire population of Paris. Mon dieu." It rattled him, hearing the specifics, in a way that talk of coming war in the abstract didn't. And the thought of being hanged rattled him even more. He absently brought his hand to his neck to rub along his throat.

"When I return, perhaps I will have to reevaluate my employment. Maybe move to California, they have good weather there, and no one ever invades California."

[vengeance_driven]

Niko isn't sure where California is. Maybe it's some place in the US. One of the middle states. Or what Canada used to be called? No one invades that and French people live there.

"Hey, from one morally questionable guy to another, alive is the best way to earn money. And not in jail."

[archeologue]

"I can drink to that."

And he raised his glass.

"To staying alive. Truly the best way to live."

[vengeance_driven]

Живели! Niko raised his glass, clinking them together, silently adding that was the case until he got tired of surviving, anyway. That wouldn't be bad.